Sorry You’re a Horse – Some History

 

Here is a some history on Sorry You’re a Horse. In 1976, 1977 and 1978, we were in our last years at school, at home, as carefree kids. We had a band we loved and lived. The band was called Savage. We practiced and hung out almost every day. It was a passion. A commitment. It was everything at the time.  We were good. Really good. We wrote our own songs and played covers of the songs we loved. We knew that in some form this was the blueprint of our life ahead. The members were Kinley Wolfe Bass, Chris Craig Drums, Shawn Lane Guitar (RIP), Danny Craig Vocals, and Tate Yawn Guitar. Other members came and went – Van Riales Guitar (RIP) and Hugh Foote Vocals. But the core 5 is when the band was really creating music and bonds. Bonds that would take 4 of us into music careers that lasted a lifetime.

One day my dear friend Marty Hopkins and I had a notebook. We were brainstorming song titles that sounded cool. One of those song titles was Sorry You’re a Horse. In the following days Savage had taken this and created a song. I had written the lyrics and hatched the idea, and we came up with what was ( at the time ) an epic show piece. We won the battle of the bands at Overton Park Shell playing that song (although Shawn Lane at 13 or 14 shredding the guitar into pieces was probably more the reason). 

More than one recording was made of us playing that tune, and I believe it actually was played on a college radio station a few times in Memphis at the time. Shawn attended a recording class at Kingsbury High School, and recording this band was one of his class projects. In 1977, for us that was a rock star moment and it sounded like a record to us. Those demos, and Shawn’s legendary playing … even at that young age, got us recognition and some good gigs. As it turned out, one of those really good gigs, had us opening up at the Ritz on Madison Ave for the powerhouse recording act from Memphis – Target.  Through that gig Shawn caught the attention of the national act Black Oak Arkansas, with the legendary Jim Dandy at the helm. It was not long after Shawn was on the road with Black Oak. That was basically the end of the Savage. In the coming months I would get the call from Jim Dandy, and I too was off to join Black Oak Arkansas with Shawn. A year later we actually had Kinley in the band as well. But Savage was never to be reunited as it once was. It was history.

In 2022 Kinley and I were talking about going to the studio and recording some tracks. We brainstormed a lot of old classics, and we thought … hey let’s bring back a couple of the old Savage songs and see what that feels like. So we broke out the old tapes and started learning. We were inspired by the playing and passion those old tracks still had in them. We wanted to write an update to a little history on Sorry You’re a Horse

I re-worked the lyrics to something that was more grounded in today’s world ( yes the lyrics were worse before I re-wrote them ) and we started our project. 

This was a project that was for us … no record deals and no commitment to anyone to do anything except what we liked.  All on our dime and time.  

It’s worth noting that this song, and the entire record for that matter, is created – with a very few exceptions, with Drums, Vocals, Bass and Lead Bass only. Yes Kinley played all this on bass. You are not hearing any electric guitars or keyboards …. It’s just us 2, bass and drums. Wrap your head around that if you can. Go listen again. Consider it  – enlightenment !

So that is a some history on Sorry You’re a Horse.

 

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